At the 98th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA,Chicago, USA, 25–30 November), Siemens Healthcare is introducing Cios Alpha, a new mobile C-arm system for use in disciplines such as trauma surgery and orthopaedics.
According to the company, this new C-arm offers greater power output and a larger field of view in the operating room (OR) than conventional C-arms. Due to its new radiographic collimators, Cios Alpha with flat-panel detector has an operating area field of view that is up to 25% larger than current mobile C-arms.
When the surgeon rotates the originally square image, the new collimators – which shield the patient from unnecessary radiation – follow automatically, tracking image rotation to help ensure that the monitors display the maximum field of view.
The system’s 30 x 30 cm detector, combined with its 25 kW power output, provides high-resolution, high-contrast images and can cover the finest structures in the range of submillimeters – a particularly beneficial feature in minimally invasive surgery, where fine catheters and instruments are used frequently. Due to the flat, compact design of its flat-panel detector, Cios Alpha also provides doctors and medical personnel with additional space and thus better patient access than traditional image intensifiers.
According to the company, at 25 kW, the Cios Alpha is the most powerful mobile C-arm system available. This is especially beneficial when operating on obese patients, who require more system power to obtain images of sufficient quality. The Cios Alpha’s special cooling system protects it from overheating, helping to ensure consistently high image quality even during long operations.
The Cios Alpha also has a new touch screen interface that can be operated with three identical touch screens — on the C-arm, the monitor cart and the table-side control. Using these touch screens, the surgeon has full control of the equipment at any time during interventions. Operating staff members who often lack full view on the monitor cart can use small image previews integrated into the touch screens that enable direct control of image manipulations such as zooming or running-in of radiographic collimators.
The company announced that the Cios Alpha will be available in the summer of 2013. The system is available optionally with 12 kW power output and a 20 x 20cm flatpanel detector.
